Liberation From Back Pain

Lumbar Support Causes Neck Problems, 6 Reasons Why

Ever since discovering pelvis support in an office chair I’ve understood the bad logic of lumbar support in chairs…and that’s been 12 years of comfortable sitting at my desk.

But what if you can’t drag your well-designed chair with you wherever you go, I mean it has wheels… but it’s just not going to work on the train.

A quick glance at youtube videos on how to sit in a chair with “good posture” leaves me worried and amazed that we are still perpetuating so many myths.

So, here’s a quick run down of why your back doesn’t need lumbar support.

By the time your back is using lumbar support…it’s too late. This means that when your lumbar curve is flattening out you’ve already rolled off the back of your sit bones and the integrity of your entire spine has been lost…all the way up to your head.

Relying on lumbar support means that your back gets weaker. Rather than self-supporting as it does in standing, your lower back is collapsing backward.

Your back doesn’t begin at L1-L5. (the lumbar vertebrae) When in a chair, your supporting structure begins at the sit bones…i.e. the base of the pelvis.

Wherever your pelvis goes, your lumbar spine follows. If your pelvis is upright, the lower back has no choice but maintain its curvature…negating the need for lumbar support.

If you’re balancing, without holding your back muscles, they don’t fatigue and therefore the efficiency of being upright uses minimal energy.

If balancing isn’t yet doable, then find a chair that gives pelvis support and your lumbar spine won’t even touch the back rest. (sorry, mesh doesn’t count as support)

The main (and scariest) implication of relying on a lumbar support is that wherever your pelvis is placed determines where your head, neck and shoulders end up. In other words, for every degree of natural lumbar you lose there is a flow on effect upward to your neck and shoulders.

That is, if your head is coming forward during the day at your desk, don’t pull it back.

Trying to sit up straight, holding your neck back or your shoulders pulled backward is just using effort which will eventually fail…all day, every day.